09/03/2026
Rockwall Professional Firefighters Association, IAFF Local #5057 report good progress in their efforts to work with the local mayor and city council on emerging public safety issues.
Rockwall firefighters strive to cooperate with city leaders on public safety issues and ways to keep our fire department strong. This week, we clarified where we stand on several important local issues in the letter below. In reviewing the letter, Mayor McCallum renewed his commitment to work with us on addressing these issues. As always, we appreciate the opportunity to deliver excellent service, be good stewards of city resources, and give back to the community through multiple programs including our scholarship, meals on wheels donations, Firefighters' Ball charitable event for injured or sick Firefighters and more.
September 2, 2026
The Honorable Tim McCallum
City of Rockwall
385 S. Goliad Street
Rockwall, Texas 75087
VIA EMAIL AND
Re: Rockwall Firefighter Compensation and the FY 2027 Budget
Dear Mayor McCallum:
On behalf of the Rockwall Professional Firefighters Association and as a citizen, we respectfully ask you and the City Council to support the modest voter approved revenue adjustment necessary to provide Public Safety personnel including Rockwall Firefighters with a meaningful, competitive pay increase.
We recognize that the City faces a more difficult budget environment than it did during Rockwall’s years of rapid growth. We also appreciate the City’s historically strong financial position and the Council’s efforts to reduce the property-tax rate. However, the current budget discussion must be based on a complete and accurate account of firefighter compensation, inflation and Rockwall’s position relative to competing cities. You have criticized former Council members for lowering the tax rate over the last several years. By continuing to leave our tax rate at its current extremely low rate, you are perpetuating the problem, not fixing it.
INFLATION and the CPI
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers increased from 261.582 in January 2021 to 333.918 in July 2026. That is a 27.7 percent increase in consumer prices. In other words, even after the raises firefighters received during this period, many have lost purchasing power. A nominal pay increase is not a real increase when the cost of housing, groceries, insurance, transportation and other necessities has risen faster.
The City’s own salary survey reinforces the problem. Rockwall ranks last or near last in compensation across almost every firefighter rank included in its comparison with seven peer cities. The current pay matrix for the end of fiscal year 2026 does not correct that competitive disadvantage.
This is not simply a matter of whether firefighters would like to earn more. Competitive compensation directly affects the City’s ability to recruit qualified, high-character, firefighters.
CLARIFYING the CURRENT PAY PROGRAM
It is also important to accurately describe Rockwall’s five-step pay program. Movement through an established step plan is not the same as an across-the-board raise. A step increase (only in the first 5 years of employment) recognizes an employee’s progression through a compensation structure based on experience and continued service. It does not adjust the entire pay matrix for inflation, and employees who have reached the final step receive no further base-pay progression. In your model, Mayor, if you work a 30 year career, year 6 until retirement you received NO pay increase whatsoever. 72% of our firefighters are at that 6-30 year scale, and in 2 years it will be in the 90% range.
Similarly, the City’s “top-out” payment should not be characterized as a salary increase. The annual payment is contingent upon an employee receiving a satisfactory evaluation and does not increase the employee’s base salary. In addition, the top out check is included in our salary advertised. Because it does not become part of base pay, it does not compound in future years in the way a genuine salary adjustment does. Calling either a scheduled step or a top-out payment a new raise overstates the City’s investment in firefighter compensation and is a falsehood. You made the statement that we receive a “bonus”. Nothing is further from the truth.
PROPERTY TAX REDUCTIONS and NEW PRESSURE on the CITY BUDGET
Rockwall’s property-tax rate also deserves context. Over the last several years, the Council reduced the rate from more than 50 cents per $100 of valuation to approximately 25.75 cents. This reduction was aided substantially by the growth in local sales-tax revenue. Again, you are aware of this as you have been publicly critical of past Councils that lowered the rate year after year.
Rockwall is now more fully developed, sales-tax growth has slowed, and the broader economy has flattened. Those conditions have placed new pressure on the budget. They do not mean Rockwall is financially unhealthy. They mean the City must realistically evaluate whether a tax rate established during a period of exceptional growth can continue to fund competitive public-safety services under different economic conditions.
Among the cities included in the salary survey, the reported property-tax rates are:
• Rowlett: 80.7891 cents
• Burleson: 69.89 cents
• Wylie: 54.3438 cents
• Richardson: 54.218 cents
• Allen: 49.40 cents
• Lewisville: 41.89 cents
• ROCKWALL: 25.75 cents
• Grapevine: 23.7228 cents*
* While Grapevine has a lower rate, the city benefits from an extraordinary concentration of hotels, resorts, tourism and sales-tax-generating properties, including Ga***rd Texan and Great Wolf Lodge. Rockwall does not have a comparable revenue base.
We understand that supporting any increase in the tax rate can be politically difficult. But responsible fiscal conservatism is not defined by refusing to adjust a tax rate under every circumstance. It is defined by collecting no more than necessary, spending those dollars responsibly and funding the essential services residents expect. As you know, well-managed cities throughout Texas, many led by conservatives like you, adjust for fluctuations in property and sales tax revenues in planning and funding of public safety obligations.
WHAT a HALF-CENT ADJUSTMENT MEANS
The estimated adjustment needed to provide firefighters with a raise is less than one-half cent per $100 of valuation. For a home valued at $475,000, a half-cent adjustment would equal approximately $23.75 per year — less than $2 per month.
We do not minimize any increase in a resident’s tax bill. We believe most Rockwall residents would consider approximately $2 per month a responsible investment in recruiting and retaining the trained professionals who respond when their homes, businesses and families face an emergency.
FIREFIGHTERS’ ASKS
Rockwall firefighters are not asking for excessive compensation or an open-ended financial commitment. We are asking the City to:
1. Recognize that firefighter pay increases since fiscal year 2021 have not kept pace with inflation;
2. Stop characterizing scheduled step progression and top-out payments as permanent salary increases;
3. Address Rockwall’s last-place or near-last-place position in the City’s salary survey;
4. Support the modest tax-rate adjustment necessary to provide a meaningful firefighter pay increase.
Rockwall remains a financially healthy community with the lowest municipal property-tax rates among comparable cities. The question is not whether the City can maintain an exceptionally low rate. The question is whether it can do so while continuing to recruit and retain the professional firefighters its residents depend upon.
Thank you for your time and consideration of these issues.
As always, we welcome the opportunity to meet with you and the Council to review the salary survey, pay matrix and budget figures in detail. We are committed to working together on a responsible solution that protects taxpayers while ensuring Rockwall maintains a first-class professional fire department.
Respectfully,
Michael M. Caffey
President
Rockwall Professional Firefighters Association
cc: Members of the Rockwall City Council
City Administration
Rockwall Professional Firefighters Association
